Carlesimo + YGZ® = Stiffling D

If you enjoyed that brand of high octane rabid defense you saw last night look no further than the man Seton Hall Named as "Coach of the Century" AKA PJ Carlisimo.

Who woulda-thunk-it Jack and Calderon playing 6 min/per guy in each quarter? rather than 10-12 with prolonged play and rest. Its brilliant - you gotta use what you have. They will still be in tough to make play-offs but one thing Raps fans wont stomach is a team that is limp wristed about playing D.

Raps don't have go to guy for buckets - expect much of the offense to be generated of turnovers and hustle. NCAA style full and half court presses. That is Carlisimo's specialty. He won in NCAA with Seaton Hall and in NBA with Spurs. PJ knows "D".

They have the perfect mix of guys to game plan like thisFringe NBA:
Dupree
Dorsey
Evans
Andersen
J Wright
Weems (up until recently but is also playing for contract)

Young guys who want to make their mark and are not complacent NBA vets (ahem #Hedo)
Ed davis
Amir Johnson
Jarret Jack
Alabi
DeRozen

Kleiza and Calderon are already guys who enjoy hustle so that leaves Bargs and Barbosa needed to feed off the atmosphere of hunger created by this group.

Remember last year's season opener vs the Cavs? The raps played their asses off and I remember thinking to myself 'damn, if they play this hard all season they could do some good things'. That effort level lasted about 3 games.

As the post above me says, you can't really judge a team's character until at least a quarter of the way into the regular season.

I'll get back to this thread 20 games into the regular season and see what the situation is in relation to the Raptor's defense.

thats what i was thinking cant judge a whole lot about the D after one game even though they played incredible man to man D with good ball pressure last night against a team that can score. still, way too early need a regular season sample to judge that game meant nothing to the suns.

perhaps we can enjoy this short-lived rare ecstatic experience for this season till we meet the c**tics on sunday.

holy, jeez just say it already the celtics. it's not like they go the r**ptors, they don't, well thye prolly call us the craptors but w/e.

just say the darn name it's stupid with the asterix's like it's a swear.

the only time you can really do it is if we are always tight with them for the division lead every yearfor a few years and then a two sided rivalry heats up where celtics fans actually notice that we're in their division too.

If Your Uncle Jack Helped You Off An Elephant, Would You Help Your Uncle Jack Off An Elephant?

Sometimes, I like to buy a book on CD and listen to it, while reading music.

Remember last year's season opener vs the Cavs? The raps played their asses off and I remember thinking to myself 'damn, if they play this hard all season they could do some good things'. That effort level lasted about 3 games.

As the post above me says, you can't really judge a team's character until at least a quarter of the way into the regular season.

I tmay not happen over the long run but last year it was certainly not going to happen.

-Turk (gone)- lazy terrible defender/ terrible rebounder / no intensity / no desire-Beli (gone)- would never conform to any type of game plan-Bosh (gone) - started mailing it in after all star break-Wright (gone)- too injured but was good defender hustle guy when he could string together a few healthy games-Patrick O'Bryant (gone) - too lazy/ cant defend/ wont hustle / cant rebound/ would never work in new system-Rasho (gone) - too old to slow - would never work in new system-Calderon - under old system defensive weakness was more glaring - maybe short bursts will help?

Thats the bulk of the rotation gone - those guys would never have sustained this type of defense and rebounds. I am not saying they will for sure this time around - but I expect them to play much harder and defend much better - the current personnel is more conducive to such an ideal.

Sirharrywilly

Where's your attitude about how bad the raps are going to be? You were pretty negative on Kleiza before the preseason. Maybe you should stop listening to the talking heads who are predicting the Raptors last in the eastern conference. I think about half the analyst have them last in the eastern conf. One thing that was pretty noticable is that hedo and bosh were bad man to man defenders. As help side defenders they were alright but they constantly were getting beat.
The other big difference is that Kleiza scores in different ways and most of those ways are not one on one situations. Bosh and Hedo wanted to be one on one guys because they're ego's were to big for the team. No one player is bigger then the team and when that happens you don't have success but failure.

Where's your attitude about how bad the raps are going to be? You were pretty negative on Kleiza before the preseason. Maybe you should stop listening to the talking heads who are predicting the Raptors last in the eastern conference. I think about half the analyst have them last in the eastern conf. One thing that was pretty noticable is that hedo and bosh were bad man to man defenders. As help side defenders they were alright but they constantly were getting beat.
The other big difference is that Kleiza scores in different ways and most of those ways are not one on one situations. Bosh and Hedo wanted to be one on one guys because they're ego's were to big for the team. No one player is bigger then the team and when that happens you don't have success but failure.

You conclude all that after one preseason game? I was born on a day but it wasn't yesterday. Talk to me 20 games into the regular season.......save all your preseason drama for the Dali Lama. The fact that you have to call me names shows that all of your logical rebuttals have been or are nearly exhausted -Frankthetank, and that you're just grasping for straws in response to my opinions on TO in 2010-11.

I am not placing much on one preseason game. But the level of intensity on defense was refreshing. As for PJ, I already made my thoughts clear on him which many others, mainly golden, disagreed with - so be it. I still think he is a great assistant coach for this team and will compliment Triano in terms of personality and coaching style. It is quite obvious Jay is a good coach offensively, as scoring has never been the problem for the Raptors the last couple of seasons, and it is well-known PJ is a good coach defensively. It is known Jay has been soft on players and it is known PJ has been a tad critical which may be an understatement.

Actually, the college style press and aggressive defense is borrowed from Coach K and Team USA. On a positive note, it is refreshing to see something that Jay stated in the media, actually transpire on the court, even for one pre-season game.

The real question is if the intensity and committment will last once the pecking order is established and guys have a level of comfort in their playing time & roles. For a short tourney like the worlds its okay, but a long NBA season is a tougher grind. Skill guys don't usually like to be 'energy' guys for 82 games.

"Defensively, last year, we had a very difficult time," Triano admitted. "We sat back and we had a hard time containing."

To turn that around, Triano isn't borrowing a page from the U.S. team's opponents, but from the U.S. team itself.

Kevin Durant was the offensive star at the World Championship, but it was the Americans' aggressive defense that was most responsible for bringing home gold from Istanbul. Triano doesn't have athletic defenders like Andre Iguodala and Russell Westbrook in Toronto, but his team will be faster and more athletic that it was last season.

DeMar DeRozan, Sonny Weems and Amir Johnson, three returnees with young legs, will have larger roles. Leandro Barbosa brings speed to the backcourt, while Kleiza brings versatility up front.

"We're going to be a lot more aggressive," Triano said. "With that athleticism, we're going to be able to keep guys in front of us a lot better. And if we can apply some pressure to turn teams over, it's going to create some offense."

So Sir Chilly you're basically saying that regardless of what happens that you're reserving your opinion on the team until twenty games in to the regular season. Why tell us that you have no opinion? Seriously. We don't care if you have no opinion. Either say something or don't. Very simple. I know that you love the sound of your own typing...and your obviously some kind of frustrated basement rapper...but really, say something or don't. We don't care that you say nothing artfully. Think about it.

So Sir Chilly you're basically saying that regardless of what happens that you're reserving your opinion on the team until twenty games in to the regular season. Why tell us that you have no opinion? Seriously. We don't care if you have no opinion. Either say something or don't. Very simple. I know that you love the sound of your own typing...and your obviously some kind of frustrated basement rapper...but really, say something or don't. We don't care that you say nothing artfully. Think about it.

Kiddo, you are completely stuck on stupid- rewind it and loop it.

As a matter of fact off to the Principal's office you go kiddo for your untenable facetious balderdash:

Actually, the college style press and aggressive defense is borrowed from Coach K and Team USA. On a positive note, it is refreshing to see something that Jay stated in the media, actually transpire on the court, even for one pre-season game.

The real question is if the intensity and committment will last once the pecking order is established and guys have a level of comfort in their playing time & roles. For a short tourney like the worlds its okay, but a long NBA season is a tougher grind. Skill guys don't usually like to be 'energy' guys for 82 games.

It'll be a real test for the Rap's to see if they can do the same to Bos(Rondo) & Chi(Rose) as they did to Phx in their next 2 preseason games. Btw- Phx was a team coming off of a game the night before and I think we all remember how dreadful TO was on the 2nd night of back to back games last season....